Sponge Cake

8 oz SR flour 8 oz soft margarine 8 oz sugar 4 eggs a dash of vanillla essence Put all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until light in colour. If it curdles just throw in a handfull of flour. Turn into 2 greased 8″ sandwich tins and cook in […]

Plain Basmati Rice

Fill a pan one third full of water with half a tsp salt and bring to the boil When it is boiling hold your bag of basmati rice about a foot above the water and pour it in a stream into the middle of the pan until the peak just breaks the surface of the […]

Yellow Basmati Rice

Fry half a tsp cumin seed and a tsp black mustard seed in oil and when the mustard seeds stop popping throw in a chopped onion and stir. Cook gently until soft then add a large mug of rice and stir again. Add half a tsp turmeric, a cinamon stick and a few cadamon pods […]

Quick and easy Chicken Korma

Start the night before In a food processor or with a stick blender puree together: 1 tsp ground ginger 3 cloves garlic 150g thick natural yoghurt half a fresh chilli, including seeds 2 onions 1 tbsp ground corriander 1 tsp turmeric 175g creamed coconut grated quarter tsp salt 2 – 3 tbsp ground almonds juice […]

Sausage Casserole

Ingredients 8 or 9 good quality sausages tinned tomatoes glass of red wine cooking oil large onion 1 green pepper 2 cloves garlic good slug Worcestershire sauce 2 tsp granulated sweetener tabasco sauce to taste Salt and pepper Method Heat the oven to gas 5 etc In an oven proof saucepen brown the sausages a […]

Mavis’s Shepherds Pie

I make this for everyone but as it has no horrid onions or mushrooms, Mavis will eat it without making a fuss. Of course it has to have other ingredients to add flavour or it would be really boring. Ingredients 1k beef mince 4 slices streaky bacon, diced half a cup of red wine a […]

Cheese Nibbles

Ingredients 4oz plain flour 4 oz cold butter 4 oz grated mature cheddar (or any cheese really) Quarter tsp. cayenne pepper 1 egg yolk Method Pre-heat the oven to gas 7, 425 F 220 C. Throw all the ingredientsapart from the egg yolk into a food processor bowl with the metal bald and process on […]

Recipes for Horace

Four years ago, or maybe more, I promised HoraceI would write down all my recipes for her so she wouldn’t starve at university. Despite the fact that she didn’t even know how to bake a potato, and that I completely failed to fulfil my promise, Horace is still as large as life and cooking with […]